North West 200 Preview
With Ben McCook
The 2024 Briggs Equipment North West 200 will get underway on Wednesday morning, when riders take to the circuit for qualifying. This legendary public roads event (which is celebrating it’s 95th birthday this year) has traditionally kicked-off on a Tuesday. But due to Bank Holiday Monday BSB racing at Oulton Park, it’s been pushed back a day this year to allow visiting teams and riders from the BSB paddock enough time to make the journey from England, across the Irish Sea, and onto Northern Ireland’s north coast.
As ever, Glenn Irwin is the hot favourite for Superbike honours. The Hager PBM Ducati man has just taken the lead in the British Superbike Championship after a convincing treble at Oulton Park, and is in the form of his life. Glenn has won the last eight superbike races in a row around the triangle circuit and will have a huge target on his back.
If he manages to win a single big-bike race, that will be enough to join Joey Dunlop and Michael Rutter on nine victories as the most successful NW 200 Superbike riders ever. Mind you, it’s worth noting Dunlop and Rutter didn’t chalk up theirs consecutively.
This year, Irwin will also have an extra chance to get the job done, as a Superbike sprint race has been included in the Thursday night race-schedule for the first time.
Sadly, for the fans, Irwin’s job will be made a little easier by the absences of Alastair Seeley and Lee Johnston. It was officially confirmed by North West 200 officials earlier today that Seeley will not be lining up on the grid this year after months of will he/won’t he speculation.
It was quite widely accepted Johnston (who almost lost his life at last year’s event) would not be fit in time after breaking his leg during a winter test, and the strong rumour was that Seeley would ride his machinery instead. Today, the North West people confirmed they had been working on that deal, but that terms could not be agreed on.
With 29 wins at the event, Alastair Seeley is Mr NW200, and it’s quite unthinkable he won’t be on the grid come Wednesday. The self-described ‘part-time racer, full-time postman’ has for two decades been ever-present at the evnt, and sits comfortably on top of the all-time winners’ charts. His 29 victories are almost double that of the next in line (the late, great Robert Dunlop has 15), giving some indication of his dominance.
While Johnston joins the BBC commentary team, the ‘Wee Wizard’ will stay at home. More’s the pity.
Last year, there was great controversy surrounding FHO BMW. They left the paddock early in protest after Peter Hickman and Josh Brookes were pulled from the start-line of the opening Superstock race due to the illegal carbon wheels their M1000rs were sporting. This year, FHO has not come back, meaning Brookes will not take part.
However, Peter Hickman will be present and is entered to ride PHR Performance machinery in all the classes. It’s hard not to think the number 60 BMW he will race in Superbike and Superstock is simply an FHO bike in disguise, particularly when you take into account how close the TT is, and how valuable the public roads track-time will be.
Hickman arrives in Portstewart battered and bruised after a frustrating weekend in the British Championship, during which he was involved in several heavy crashes. The lap-record holder hasn’t set the world on fire so far in 2024 and will be looking to kick-start his season.
Honda Racing will attack this year with three riders, each campaigning the 2024 Fireblade, which will be in Superstock specification for both the Superstock and Superbike races.
Unbelievably, John McGuinness is celebrating 30 years of racing around the triangle circuit in 2024 and, despite now being in his 50s, will be looking for a similarly solid performance to the one he enjoyed last year, when he bagged a pair of 5ths in the Superbike races.
However, the team leader this year has to be a new recruit, Dean Harrison. Harrison has long been considered (along with Peter Hickman and Michael Dunlop) as one of the ‘aliens’ of the TT, but some may say he has been hampered by an ageing Kawasaki that couldn’t match the mumbo of the European bikes. The move to Honda is thought to be one that’ll put him on a more even footing on the Isle of Man, and this week should prove whether that’s the case or not.
Last year ‘Deano’ was on a seriously fast lap and catching Glenn Irwin, when a red flag came out in the opening Superbike race. Perhaps his new Fireblade will be the difference that sees him take his first win at the venue.
Nathan Harrison completes the line-up for the big H, and will be hoping for an easier run than he had in 2023. The young Manx protégé crashed out of the Thursday night Stock race 12 months ago and missed the rest of the event and the TT due to the injuries he’d sustained.
As ever, there is an air of mystery surrounding Michael Dunlop and his SBK machinery. Beside his name in the programme, it reads ‘TBA’, and the Ballymoney man has been tight-lipped about his future direction. Last year, he enjoyed a highly successful season onboard the Hawk Racing Hondas, but there has been speculation the new 2024 Blade will not be available to the Stuart Hicken team.
Dunlop took part in the Le Mans 24-hour race for the Honda France-backed TRT27 team a few weeks ago, and then promptly turned up at the Cookstown 100 road race just days later with an all-white 2024 blade. Only hours before practice will get underway did McGuinness reveal the Fireblade he will campaign this year.
His Supersport mount will not be a surprise. After years of riding (with great success) a Yamaha YZF-R6 in the Supersport class, he has made the leap to Triumph. Talking to the riders, it seems as though this could be the last year we see any rider of note ride an in-line-four 600 cc machine within the class. Many say they are simply too expensive to run. While the R6 and CBR machines are tuned to the nuts and need regular refreshes, the larger capacity Ducatis and Triumphs are dulled down via the ECU, making them much more reliable and cost-efficient, not to mention any performance advantages they may also bring.
That said, these next-gen bikes have yet to win at the North West or the TT, but that will surely change this year given the calibre of riders who have made the leap.
Last year’s double Supersport winner, Davey Todd, has jumped from Padgett’s to TAS, and will ride a Ducati in the middle-weight races, and a BMW in SBK/Stock. Todd stuck the Ducati on the podium at the opening BSB round at Navarra in Spain, despite only dipping his toe in the Supersport water to gain track time.
His regular class is National Superstock, and the Saltburn rider went on to win the opening race at Oulton Park last weekend. He’s shown a real resurgence in form after a slump that began at last season’s TT and led to his exit from Padgett’s. It may well be that if anyone is to dethrone Glenn Irwin in 2024, Todd could be the man.
Going the other way (from TAS to Padgett’s) is Ian Hutchinson. ‘Hutchy’ is returning from a stroke he suffered at the start of 2023, and it’s hard to know exactly how he will fair. However, a return to the team that saw him win five TTs in a week in 2010 could be just the tonic he needs to get back to the pointy-end of the pack. Write ‘the miracle-man’ off at your peril.
His team-mate is Manxman Conor Cummins, who, after some deliberation, was announced as continuing with the Batley concern during the off-season. It’s been a while since Cummins has shone around the North West, but he’s another you cannot discount.
James Hillier has also switched to Fireblade machinery for the 1000 cc classes, and will ride for the WTF team. From the outside, it appears to essentially be the OMG Yamaha team he rode for last year, only rebranded to put some marketing distance between it and the Yamaha BSB team. Despite being the fastest Yamaha rider ever at the TT, James, like many, clearly thinks Honda is the way to go. He returns to the Bournemouth Kawasaki team for Supersport.
Adelaide’s Davo Johnson will be the official Kawasaki rider, riding ZX10-Rs for Lee Hardy Racing. Lee Hardy’s team have enjoyed great success in BSB over the years, but will be fully focused on the roads in 2024. Davo will be looking to recapture the pre-Covid form that saw him on the podium at the TT in 2019.
Richard Cooper led the Daytona 200 in March before crashing out and is a class act. The diminutive Nottingham rider will once again ride BPE Russell racing an R6 Yamaha in Supersport and the controversial Ryan Farquhar Kawasaki SuperTwin. The YZF-R6 is the bike Josh Brookes will ride at the TT and it will be more than capable of winning…
Cooper won both Supertwins races in 2022, but was then disqualified due to an illegal fairing-bracket. Those victories were finally returned to him via the courts just a few months ago, meaning he has now won the past four Twins contests at the North West on the bounce. He won’t have it easy this year, though, as rule changes have dictated his little Kawasaki must be returned from 700cc to 650, with the 660 Aprilias and Yamaha YZF-R7s afforded some technical advantages in an attempt to even the class up. Amazingly, at 60 years-of-age, ex-Moto GP rider, Jeremy McWilliams, will once again take his place on the start-line on a Paton and will be one of Cooper’s main rivals.
Other riders to watch out for at this year’s races are Cooper’s new BPE Russell supersport team-mate, Mike Browne, who surprisingly ditched Team Burrows/ RK racing after renewing a deal with them last year. The dairy farmer will be hoping the switch to BPE Russell will turn him into a potential race winner. Interestingly, he rides an 1100cc factory-backed Aprilia in Superbike.
Dominic Herbertson replaces Browne at Team Burrows, and comes to the North West in a buoyant mood after four wins at the Cookstown road races. Paul Jordan and Austria’s Julian Trummer are Jackson Racing’s new riders and may spring a surprise. And young newcomer, Kevin Keyes, comes to the roads with some fanfare after a successful career in the BSB support classes, and is another who may catch the eye.
The weather forecast is fairly good for the week, as high-pressure systems swirl around the region and hopefully keeps the wet stuff at bay. The outlook is particularly good for the main race day, next Saturday.
Due to most of the big-name competitors racing at Oulton Park over the weekend, it’s been an unusually slow build-up to this year’s event in the local area, with the paddock sparsely populated, up until now, by local teams and riders who don’t compete in England.
However, the star-men will now be rolling towards the ferry terminals en route to the event, and the excitement levels will be rapidly rising over the next 24 hours. A cloak of nervous anticipation, the like of which you only get at an international road race, will soon close in over the paddock and surrounding area, and that’s when you know it’s show time.
Check back later in the week for updates on how things are progressing here on the Irish North Coast.
